Frank Horwill

Caution!

These articles were first published many year's ago and whilst some are as relevant today as they were when new, many are now mostly of historical interest as modern research and coaching methods have superseded them.

Boosting your VO2 Max

By Frank Horwill

Now that winter's coming, here's a useful programme for boosting your VO2 max

A 15-minute running test around a 400 metre track can lead to revolutionary improvements in fitness in just 12 weeks. The object of the 15-minute test is to cover as much distance as possible. A secondary factor is that the distance run can predict VO2 max with 95 per cent accuracy. I recently tested a male runner this way and estimated his oxygen uptake as 64mls.kg.min. A week later he paid £40 for a sophisticated treadmill VO2 max test at a British Olympic Medical Centre; they gave him 65mls.kg.min.

As the distance run indicates current fitness levels, so the same distance run can be used as a basis for further training. Let us imagine that an athlete runs exactly 4,000m in 15 minutes. The target in 12 weeks time is 4,400m, which correlates to a 10 per cent improvement in VO2 max. To achieve this, a minimum of four training sessions a week are required, which can be allocated on an every other day basis. Should a keen athlete decide on 12 sessions a week (twice a day training) there will be a correspondingly greater improvement in fitness, ie, a greater distance run on the test. Here's the procedure:

1. Halve the distance run on the test - in this case, 2,000m. Once a week,
run 4 x 2,000m in 7½ minutes with 60 seconds recovery after each rep.

2. Double the distance run on the trial - in this example, 8,000m (about
five miles). Run this distance once a week in 30 minutes + 3 minutes
(33 minutes total).

3. Calculate the time per lap run. In this example, it is 90 secs per
400m. (If the distance run was 5,000m it would be 72 secs/400m.) Halve
this time, ie, 45 seconds, and subtract 8 seconds = 37 secs. Once a
week run a series of 200m repetitions in 37 secs starting with 90 secs
recovery, which decreases by 15 secs after each 200m run, eg, 37/90,
37/75, 37/60 down to 37/15/37. At this point, return to the original
rest time and repeat. These continue until the time calculated cannot
be recorded. This may be 8 x 200m or 28 x 200m.

The object of the exercise

The aim of all four of these training sessions is to improve the overall times each month. If the minimum volume is chosen, the sessions can be apportioned each week as follows:

Sunday: Long run (4 x test run in 69 mins minus)

Tuesday: Repetition 200s with declining recovery

Thursday: Double-distance run (33 mins)

Saturday: Half the distance run x 4 with 60 secs recovery

If the maximum volume is chosen each week, it's a good idea to do the double-distance run each morning and arrange the remaining sessions as above.

We must now ask: what is the physiological basis for this regime? It is as follows:

1. The training is specifically designed to improve the distance run in 15
minutes. If this is achieved, VO2 max (fitness) will correspondingly
improve.

2. The world's leading work physiologists are agreed that VO2 max is best
improved by running at between 80 and 100 per cent of VO2 max. To
understand this we must remember the key:

Percentage of VO2 max

Approximate Related Pace

100

3K

95

5K

90

10K

80

Half-marathon

We can now apply this key to each individual session. If we take 1.
listed above, this is between 3km and 5km pace (100-95% VO2 max). As
fitness improves it will approach the latter more. Consider session 2.
This approaches the athlete's 10km speed (90% VO2 max). As fitness
improves, it will also become a lactate-response run in the range of
90-95% VO2 max. If we analyse session 3, this approximates to 1,500m
speed which is 110% VO2 max. Finally, session 4 is analogous to
half-marathon speed, as the 4 x the distance run improves from 69 mins
to 63 mins, which will be 80% VO2 max.

So what's a 'lactate-response run'?

I've mentioned that session 2 with improved fitness will become a
lactate-response run. Many athletes are mystified by this term. If a
person goes for a jog, the amount of lactate circulating around the
body will be negligible and the activity can continue for a very long
time. If, however, the individual ran 800 metres full out, the body
would be saturated in lactic acid, for no other middle-distance event
produces so much saturation. This is why the great Olaf Astrand
suggests that all runners should race 800m regularly because they will
be better able to cope with lesser amounts of lactate accumulated in
longer and slower races.

In a lactate-response run we do not want the former (jogging), nor do
we desire the latter (800m speed). We require a point in our running
speed just below the level where lactic acid begins to accumulate
rapidly which we can maintain for four miles (6.5km). Now this cannot
be our best 5km speed, nor is it our best 10km speed, for it will be
too slow. It is between the two. When we get bogged down for some time
with the same VO2 max figure, it is the lactate-response run that will
improve our fitness further with less likelihood of injury doing faster
work on the track.

Start in the winter

After 12 weeks on the outlined programme a second test is carried out,
and the further distance covered must inevitably lead to new
calculations resulting in progressively faster sessions. This type of
training is best started in the winter and continued throughout the
year, with modifications made to accommodate specific race
requirements. For example, session 1, 4 x half the distance run in 7.5
minutes can be altered to 8 x a quarter of the distance run with 3
mins.45 secs recovery. Session 3, repetition 200s, can be altered to
400m reps at the same speed with the same recoveries as for the200s.
This, of course, will result in fewer reps being done.

So far we have discussed mainly aerobic fitness. The ability to sprint
is a major asset in most sports. Basic speed is tested by running 40
yards (36.6m) full out from a standing or crouch start. The general
goal is for males to get well under five seconds and for females to get
well below six. Whatever figure is recorded, this can predict the
potential 400m time with 95 per cent accuracy using this formula: 40
yds time x 10 + 2 secs = male 400m potential time; 40 yds time x 10 + 3
secs = female 400m potential time. Thus a male who records exactly five
seconds has the potential to run 400m in 52 secs. A female who records
six seconds has a potential 400m time of 63 secs. When the 400m
potential time has not been achieved, it is usually because sprint
training repetitions have not exceeded 200m. The burning of sugar
(glycolysis) in a 400m race starts after 300m, so work involving 350m
full-out sprints is required.

It may be trite to say that poor sprint ability will not improve if it
is ignored. Small amounts of sprint work done every other day in winter
will get the reflexes toned up. All distance runners should have a
sprint coach as well as their own distance-running coach. To ignore this often leads to the athlete becoming a one-pace runner.